on tour
1000 IsLands
CLayTon, n.y. – juLy 21-23
Hosted by the Clayton Chamber of Commerce
WInnInG anGLer
PRESENTED
BY
photos by GarrIck dIxoN
Scott dobSon
cLarkSton, mIcH.
Stat Line: dobson has a long history of top 10s in flw bass fishing league, walmart flw tour and costa flw
series competition, including six wins at the bfl level. this victory is his first at the flw series level. he’s now
earned more than $425,000 with flw.
tactics and target areas
104
Fluctuating water temperatures and odd weather left the
1000 Islands smallmouths in a bit of a funk. Some were reluc-
tant to head out to deep water where they “should be” this
time of year, and others had a serious case of lockjaw.
Dobson exploited fish still cruising shallow and relating
to clean spots on the bottom on flats in 12 feet of water or
less. He called the spots “blue diamonds” due to their
bluish hue in the gin-clear water. It’s a pattern he knows
well from his home waters of Lake St. Clair and found it to
be easily duplicated around Wolfe Island, which is located
at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River near Lake Ontario.
by Kyle Wood
The abundance of moss covering the bottom forced fish to
load up around the cleaner rock areas, making them ripe
for the taking.
“If you got any of that slimy grass on your lures, it was
over and the fish weren’t going to bite,” Dobson says. “We
started to call it ‘snot’ because when that happens your bait
is not getting bit. So I keyed in on a couple of isolated areas
that were clean and snot-free.”
Dobson eased his way around the flat until he got close
to a clean spot, dropped his shallow-water anchor and cast
at fish he saw cruising. He boated about 80 percent of his
total catch by sight-fishing.
fLWfISHInG.com I october-november 2016